Critical Action and Ethnic-Racial Identity: Tools of Racial Resistance at the College Transition

Promoting Positive Development Among Racially and Ethnically Marginalized Youth: Advancing a Novel Model of Natural Mentoring

Racism and other forms of oppression threaten the well-being of racially and ethnically marginalized youth. Models of risk and resilience for marginalized youth have stressed the importance of addressing contextual and structural risk while emphasizing promotive factors such as cultural capital within their communities. Increasingly, research has focused on collective antiracist action as a form of coping with structural oppression. Importantly, supportive intergenerational relationships that develop within youths' everyday contexts may play a key role in catalyzing and reinforcing youths' engagement in antiracist action. This review advances a novel model for understanding how supportive nonparental adults from youths' everyday lives (i.e., natural mentors) influence youths' positive developmental outcomes and participation in antiracist action and how collective antiracist action, in turn, fosters liberation and racial justice. The creation of a more just and equitable society contributes to positive development among racially and ethnically marginalized youth.

Adolescent Cultural Identity Development in Context: The Dynamic Interplay of the Identity Project With Classroom Cultural Diversity Climate in Italy and Germany

While both the classroom cultural diversity climate and curriculum-based interventions can promote cultural identity development, they have not been studied together. Drawing on theories of ethnic-racial identity development, the current study aimed to understand the dynamic interplay of a curriculum-based intervention (the Identity Project) with the classroom cultural diversity climate (heritage culture and intercultural learning, critical consciousness socialization and equal treatment) on cultural identity exploration and resolution. Our sample included 906 mid-adolescents in Italy (32.36% immigrant descent, Mage (SD) = 15.12 (0.68) years, 51.73% female), and 504 early adolescents in Germany (53.86% immigrant descent, Mage (SD) = 12.82 (0.89) years, 42.37% female). Bayesian multivariate linear models show that the Identity Project and a stronger critical consciousness climate in the classroom before the intervention promoted cultural identity exploration at post-test in both countries. However, effects of the intervention and facets of the diversity climate on subsequent resolution were only observed in Italy. There was some evidence that the intervention could alter the classroom cultural diversity climate in Germany, while the intervention could compensate for a less positive diversity climate in the slightly older sample in Italy. Thus, it seems promising to systematically build in opportunities to engage with students' diverse heritage cultures and identities when developing new curricula, as well as to train teachers to implement such curricula.

Youth sociopolitical development: A conceptual framework by racial and gender minoritized youth organizers

Youth sociopolitical development (SPD) is a powerful protective and promotive factor for marginalized adolescents' social, emotional, physical, and academic well-being. Despite having unique insight and experiential knowledge about SPD processes, youth have been excluded from conceptual framework and model development. As part of a Youth Participatory Action Research project, 11 adolescents (ages 14-19) and one adult ask "How do adolescent community organizers with varying social and political experiences conceptualize youth SPD?" We used a multiple case study design, with a grounded theory analytic approach. The YPAR collective identified four interrelated, experiential domains of youth SPD: thinking, feeling, doing and relating. Within each domain, we identified and defined key constructs and practices. The YPAR collective's qualitative inquiry resulted in more nuance for existing frameworks of critical consciousness and critical action, and the collective pushes the SPD field to better integrate social and emotional aspects of SPD practice. They offer a conceptual framework that is rooted in their experiential, sensory, learned, and social knowledge, from a multiple-marginalized positionality. These insights enrich the fields of SPD research and practice.

Development and Validation of the Youth Sociopolitical Action Scale for Social Media (SASSM)

Youth sociopolitical action, which encompasses a broad range of behaviors to dismantle systems of oppression, is increasingly taking place on social media and digital platforms. This study presents the development and validation of a 15-item Sociopolitical Action Scale for Social Media (SASSM) through three sequential studies: in Study I, a scale was developed based on interviews with 20 young digital activists (Mage=19, 35% cis-gender women, 90% youth of color). In Study II, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) identified a unidimensional scale using a sample of 809 youth (Mage=17, 55.7% cis-gender women, 60.1% youth of color). In Study III, an EFA and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were used to confirm the factor structure of a slightly modified set of items with a new sample of 820 youth (Mage=17, 45.9% cis-gender women, 53.9% youth of color). Measurement invariance testing was conducted by age, gender, racial and ethnic background, and immigrant identity, confirming full configural and metric invariance, and full or partial scalar invariance. The SASSM can further research on youths' efforts to challenge oppression and injustice online.

Dismantling systems of racism and oppression during adolescence: An agenda for anti-racist research

In reflecting on the collection of work in the recent Journal of Research on Adolescence special series and what it means for research to dismantle systems of racism and oppression, we call for adolescent development researchers to embrace anti-racist research. We describe a set of strategies for conceptualizing, conducting, and disseminating research with adolescents using an anti-racist lens. These strategies flow from tenets of anti-racist research that include recognizing racism as systemic and being critically self-reflective on power and privilege, committed to doing no harm to adolescents, action-oriented, and community-centered. Despite obstacles to anti-racist research in academic and public ecosystems, anti-racist research is essential if we are interested in equity in adolescent' development and the well-being of all adolescents.

Sociopolitical development and social identities

In the past decade, interest and research on critical consciousness has increased dramatically. This commentary updates and expands Sociopolitical Development Theory by Watts and Flanagan (Journal of Community Psychology, 35, 2007, 1), elaborating on elements of the theory and linking them to liberation praxis. Expansion included research of the interplay of social identity and Critical Social Analysis (CSA) (i.e., the deconstruction of oppression's causes and effects through a political lens). This exploratory, qualitative project analyzed narratives written by young adults seeking admission to a training program for community-organizers. The result was a framework of "Viewpoints" relevant to programming for adolescents. Sample quotes illustrate how combinations of CSA and social identities can enrich sociopolitical development and are enriched by intersectionalities.